


The Twelve Days

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-05 10:03:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 4,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16808455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: Carol & Therese spend twelve days with twelve gifts.





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Loved the song and story while growing up as a kid ...

Carol sat in the living room with her bare legs folded and feet tucked beneath her on the floor beside the coffee table. She blew cigarette smoke out from the corner of her mouth before tapping the ash over inside a crystal dish. She had a classical piece of Mozart to play out of the spinning record player. All the strings of violins and cellos relaxed her and gave her peace.

Therese emerged with a silver potted pear tree wrapped in cellophane. She was grinning with her eyes all shiny and nose pink from the cold as she set the strange plant down on top of the coffee table. 

“What in the world—?” Carol began. She stubbed out the cigarette to sit up more on the pink satin sofa.

“It’s a pear tree,” Therese informed. “I couldn’t find a partridge—they had none at the pet store.” She removed her coat and draped it on top of a cushion chair with a sigh.

“I get it now. A partridge in a pear tree,” Carol recited. She started to laugh and hold the side of her face. “Just like the song.”

“That’s right.” Therese unraveled the plastic wrapping with both hands while Carol leaned closer to examine the tiny gold pears hanging off the luscious green leaves.

“How beautiful,” she said. “I’ve never seen golden pears before...” 

“Me neither,” Therese smiled. “Neat, huh?”

“Mm hm,” Carol nodded. As soon as she leaned back on the couch, she bounced her index finger and sang very carefully, “ _On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to mee..._ ”

“ _A dar-ling, golden pear tree_ ,” Therese gently finished off. She now walked toward the couch to sit beside Carol and fall into her long, embracing arms. They held onto each other and stared at the pear plant in front of them with a symphony of orchestra belted from the whirling record disc.


	2. II

Carol leaned over to kiss Therese on the lips. Kissing back, the younger woman reached into her corduroy trousers and pulled something out. They were two marble glass turtle dove ornaments. 

“How lovely,” Carol gushed. She picked one up to examine the craftwork. “These will look perfect on the tree!”

“Sing the song,” Therese said.

“ _On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to mee. Two turtle doves, and a darling, golden pear tree..._ ” she took the other turtle dove to place them both in front of the pear plant.

Therese nestled the side of her head up against Carol’s collarbone and released a sleepy yawn.


	3. III

Carol carefully laid her cloth napkin over her lap at their reserved dinner table before looking past the three flickering candlesticks at Therese, who was busily forking her plate of food. Grilled steak. Cooked asparagus, potatoes, and a bottle of sparkling cider.

“I know you’re disappointed when we saw that farmer, today,” Carol began softly. “You can’t blame him for not having any French hens in his chicken coop.”

“He told me on the phone that he did have some,” Therese mumbled. “We drove fifteen miles into the country for nothing. I wanted to surprise you—just like the song.”

Carol chuckled and then began to sing: “ _On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. Three normal hens, two turtle doves, and a darling, golden pear tree..._ ”

Therese smiled back at her, knowing that her own true love was still satisfied as ever.


	4. IV

Therese lead Carol through the upstairs hallway covering her eyes with her hands. As soon as they entered the bedroom, Therese pulled away and commanded,

“Alright. You can open your eyes now.”

Carol did just that and found herself staring at a birdcage on the nightstand with four colorful parakeets. They were chirping and clicking their beaks loudly between the metal bars of the cage. 

“Four calling birds,” Therese happily presented.

“Ah,” Carol responded back. Therese steered her by the elbow toward the cage until they were in front of it. Carol wanted to love the new pets, but they were too anxious and noisy. Therese went right ahead to sing the song,

“ _On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..._

“Four calling birds,” Carol winced.

“ _Three normal hens, two turtle doves, and a darling, golden pear tree!_ ”

The birds squawked loudly in response. 

“Darling, I love you, but we must get rid of these birds tomorrow. Permanently,” Carol spoke sharply, covering her ears to prove her point.


	5. V

Therese pressed her hands down on the glass surface of the jewelry case counter at Mason’s department store. Her eyes were looking directly down at the five golden rings displayed on a satin pillow.

The jeweler’s thin mustache twitched where he stood behind the desk, but he remained where he was, tall and professional. “My dear, my dear— I see that you’re admiring our today’s special gift,” he spoke with a light accent.

“Yes,” Therese answered. “I would like to buy all five of those golden rings, please.”

The jeweler covered his mouth with his hand and began to cough. “My dear lady,” he began. “Would you rather spend your money on the pillow instead? That’s probably all you can afford.”

Therese heard instant laughter coming from shoppers that were close enough to hear this rude, but accurate exchange. She started pulling her coin purse out of her bag anyway.

“I work for The Times,” she mumbled. “I’ve made more money than anyone could ever imagine.”

“My sincere apologies, madam,” the jeweler smirked.

xxxxx

Therese walked five miles downtown with the five golden rings directly to Carol’s furniture shop. Through the store window, she found her true love in the process of selling a cuckoo clock to a middle-age couple with their young triplet sons.

Therese pushed the glass door and made her way inside the shop with a tiny bell ringing above. A gentleman and his wife politely greeted her hello as they were making their way out. Therese stepped toward Carol and the family of five and stood there, quietly, waiting for her chance.

“Now, Miss Carol— is the bird really in there?” the family’s husband questioned, holding his hat close to his chest. “Do the doors actually open, and the bird slides out and everything?”

“Yes, Mr. Ivers,” Carol spoke. “Would you like a demonstration?”

“Shucks. I guess that wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” Mr. Ivers grinned. “Give it a go!” His wife smiled beside him as she slipped an arm around through his, while their children kept jumping up and down, excitedly.

Carol reached her hand for the round face of the clock and moved the metal copper arms until a few chimes went off and two wooden flaps of a door swung open with a long beam of a plank shot out with a green fuzzy bird perched on the end of it; cuckooing eleven times.

The Ivers family all gasped and cheered with utter stunned disbelief and excitement.

“We’ll take it!” Mr. Ivers announced.

“Oh, Oliver,” Mrs. Ivers gushed.

“Meet me at the front counter, and then we can arrange shipment,” Carol explained. She gazed over to Therese, who was smiling shyly back. “Darling? What a surprise to see you here...”

“I’m way past due my lunch break, but I wanted to give you these.” Therese held up a satin pouch, which Carol slowly took it. The Ivers were already making their way to the shop counter to cash out.

“You didn’t,” Carol whispered, remembering what day it was and what the fifth present contained in the song. She opened the pouch and peered inside.

“I did,” Therese beamed.

“I can’t wear these,” Carol shook her head. “Not all five of them!”

“Maybe after work, you can,” Therese shrugged. “I just wanted to prove how much you mean the world—”

“Darling, listen to me,” Carol sighed and rubbed the side of her head. “I can’t deal with this right now, Therese. I have to attend the Ivers and their clock... so, here.” She handed the pouch back to the young woman. “I want you to return the rings and get your money back.”

“No,” Therese growled. “It doesn’t work like that. I’ll see you at home then.” She angrily stormed off and left the shop with all five golden rings. Carol sulked as she watched her through the window, but then turned her back around to the happy family of five.

xxxxx

All Carol could think about was Therese and the five golden rings. On the route home, she stopped at the drugstore to pick up a jug of milk, bag of coconut shavings for tonight’s batch of cookies, and a pack of cigarettes, because she had smoked her last one while closing the shop. She silently cursed at herself for reacting the way she did, and that Therese had every right to be angry. _I’m not worth having her to spend so much money on me!_ Carol thought, gripping her brown gloved hands tighter around the steering wheel. 

She came home to find the rings lying on one of the seasonal placemats in the kitchen along with the pear tree set in the center. Carol sighed and stared at the golden rings while placing her bagged items down. She removed both of her gloves and then reached over to pick up a golden ring. Sliding it through her index finger, she found herself putting the other four on the same left hand. Carol wiggled them underneath the kitchen lights and that’s when she heard the piano playing from the next room. 

Therese was playing “Moonlight” as Carol entered the living room. With her eyes down, the corner of her mouth twitched the moment she felt Carol’s hands slide on top of her shoulders. 

“Hey.” Carol squeezed gently. “I would like to apologize for my behavior earlier. Can you forgive me?”

Therese said nothing. She kept playing the right notes on the keys as if Carol was not there.

“I certainly deserve the silent treatment,” Carol went on with a bitter sigh. She released her touch and now held her hand out with the five karat gold rings. “I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, Therese. I love your gifts, but sometimes, your love for me can be so overwhelming, and I-I’m not prepare for it. I never am! And these rings are so pricy and so lovely... I’m not the person who’s worthy for such fine piece of jewelry...”

“I wouldn’t have bought them if I didn’t think so,” Therese spoke, ending the song with a disrupt low note. “I love you, Carol. I always will.” 

“I love you, too,” Carol said, kissing each ring before pressing them all up against Therese’s cheek. “I’ll heat up some leftovers if you’re hungry. And I’ve also picked up a bag of coconut shavings to sprinkle the cookies with...”


	6. VI

Carol drew an outline of six laying geese with a blue crayon on a white sheet of paper. “Will you help Mommy color these in?” she asked Rindy, who had been pressing all her weight over the kitchen table. 

“Yeah,” Rindy said, reaching her arm out to grab both the orange and yellow ones from the pile. She began to scribble one of the geese near Carol’s forearm. 

“How many geese do you see, honey? Can you count with me?”

Rindy pulled back and began to recite the numbers along with her mother: “One... Two.. Three... Four... Five... _Six_.”

“There’s six!”

“That’s right, Snowflake,” Carol grinned, parting long strands of the little girl’s hair back with her fingers. She kissed Rindy on the forehead. “Good job!”

“Do you know the song, Rindy?” Therese approached with a tray of hot cocoa and several small, foiled squares of chocolate mint candy. Placing the tray carefully down, she gave both Carol and Rindy their own mugs and portions of candy.

“I’ll sing it, so we can learn together,” Carol offered. “ _On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. Six paper geese a’laying!_ ”

“That’s how it goes?!” Rindy exclaimed, giggling.

Carol wrinkled her nose up while Therese joined in, counting down:

“ _Fiiive golden rings!_  
_Four calling birds,_  
_Three normal hens,_  
_Two turtle doves...”_

“ _And a darling, golden pear treee!_ ” both the women finished off before Carol started tickling Rindy everywhere on her sides; making her squeal and squirm.


	7. VII

Rindy held onto her stuffed reindeer Comet by the crook of his neck in the backseat of the Packard while Carol was busy wrapping and tucking a red fleece blanket over her daughter’s lap for warmth. Both her and Therese were about to take the child on a special road trip. 

“Are you all nice and toasty now?” Carol questioned the four-year-old.

“Yeah,” Rindy giggled. 

Carol kissed the girl’s brown bangs before pulling herself entirely out of the car. Closing the door shut, her boots crunched through bits of gravel and snow to get around to the driver’s seat.

Therese turned her head sideways from the passenger side and gave a shy smile as soon as Carol got herself settled behind the wheel.

They drove through the countryside to sightsee and admire all the different mansions homeowners lived in and the acres of dry land. Glaciers of melting snow were layered on parts of dying, brittle grass. All the branches on the trees were bare—not a single leaf had shown. December arrived and made its stay for a little while in 1953.

Therese was the first one to spot the swans in the freezing cold lake located through a woodsy, winding road. She had made Carol pull over, so that the three of them could see the majestic, wild swans up close.

Rindy held onto Carol as she was being carried off against her hip. Carol brushed parts of her flowing hair from the wind, following Therese towards the the water. 

“Are those geese?” Rindy asked.

“No, honey, they’re swans,” Therese corrected her.

“Very similar, though,” Carol added, swooping her head down to kiss the child on the nose.

“Looks like they’re seven of them,” Therese observed. “Seven swimming swans.”

“A bit late in season for them, ain’t it? How strange,” Carol smirked, taking Rindy’s hand in hers to blow on her cold pink fingers and gently kissing them.


	8. VIII

On the ride back home, Rindy informed her mother that she needed to go potty. Therese located a rest stop on the map she had been looking at. Carol followed the scenic routes Therese had carefully recited to her as she drove them to the right location.

The rest stop was an old ski & snow lodge. A few automobiles and four milk trucks were lined up in two neat rows in the parking lot. Carol parked the Packard in front of a park bench where an old lady was taking her schnauzer dog for a walk. 

“Here we go,” Carol said, pushing her car side door open.

There stood an information booth on the left corner inside the building while the bathrooms were on the right. Therese lead Rindy to the girls’ room as she took her by the hand.

Carol stayed behind to check out the traveling brochures and state postcards. She stood beside a metal rolling rack and flipped through a Cancun pamphlet when she briefly looked out through the large glass window. She stared at the milk trucks and the wide, green-dress wearing ladies coming out of them. With curly brown hair, rosy cheeks, and twinkly eyes— All of them looked the same! Octuplets. 

_Eight milking maids_ , Carol thought. She grinned, watching the 8 sisters carry two heavy wooden buckets of pasteurized milk over their shoulders.

Carol showed Therese and Rindy the maids when they were all done using the restroom. 

They soon found out the names of maids and they were: Anya, Etta, Gretel, Helga, Olga, Petra, Rita, and Yvette.


	9. IX

Tonight, Carol was sitting beside Therese in a velvet fold-out chair on the top balcony at the local playhouse theater downtown. Dressed in a satin blue evening gown, she wore her hair pinned high above her head with stylish blue-green peacock feathers. Therese had on a dark red blazer suit and tie with a ruby-white diamond encrusted candy cane pin clasped to one of the lapels of her jacket.

As the lights on the chandelier dimmed above their heads on the ceiling, the audience of people grew quiet and still in their reserved seats as the curtains drew open with a music set of orchestra playing below the dugout. A theme song to a particular piece began with tinkling metal bars of an xylophone and a rolling heavy mixture of cello strings. 

Spinning across the center stage were a line of nine ballerina dancers dressed in pink leotards and tutus wearing pairs of ribboned silk ballet flats, all covered head-to-toe in silver glitter makeup. They twirled and pivoted their toes several times during their performance. Fake snow was falling everywhere from the stage fixtures above. The ladies eventually linked themselves together as they held each other by the hand to bounce and dance around the cardboard props of evergreen trees and a waving, friendly snowman during the first act’s scenery.

Coincidentally, the orchestra switched songs and began to play the Twelve Days of Christmas. Carol started humming along, making Therese doing the same thing. They admiringly watched the nine lady dancers jump and leap and curtsy their way back stage until a low rupture of applause echoed the entire theater.


	10. X

During intermission, Carol and Therese left their seats on the balcony to go downstairs to use the powder room. A few women were already inside; dabbing their cheeks and applying lipstick.

Therese stepped past a lady coming out of a stall. She disproved the choice of clothing Therese wore for tonight’s show and stuck her nose high in the air to prove it.

“If you raise your nose any higher, you’ll flip over,” Carol said, unkindly. The lady almost struck herself with the door as she was leaving from hearing such vile and disrespect. That’s when Carol saluted goodbye and made the others escort themselves out with some glaring looks, too. Now it was just her and Therese alone, together.

“Sheesh,” Therese muttered.

“What?” Carol said. 

“I never heard you speak like that before.”

Carol listened to Therese move behind the stall and do her business before flushing and coming out, avoiding her gaze. She stepped toward the sink to rub and lather soap on her hands before rinsing them to wash off.

“I couldn’t help myself. It came out of nowhere,” Carol spoke, staring at Therese’s reflection in the mirror. “I won’t let anyone treat you unfairly in this world, Therese. Do you understand?”

Therese lowered her head, but found herself being spun around to face front. She held onto Carol’s white glove sleeved arms, while Carol was leaning closer.

“You hear me, Angel? You have my word.”

Therese looked up at her and soon found her mouth pressing up against Carol’s; eyes closing, holding onto her. Carol cupped both of Therese’s cheeks, pulling themselves apart now with a lingering sigh. 

“Let’s head back upstairs before we miss the third act,” she whispered.

“Alright,” Therese nodded. She blinked and felt the pads of Carol’s satin gloved thumbs caress the base of her cheekbones before letting go to pick up pieces of her flowing blue dress and make a exit out of the room.

The third act begun seconds after the two women reached the top balcony and were politely excusing their way past people to their reserved seats in the dark. 

The orchestra section in the dugout switched to a college level school band playing brass instruments of trumpets, tubas, saxophones, and trombones. The theater echoed loudly with blaring horns and pounding thuds of drums.

At last, Carol and Therese found their chairs and sat down to focus their attention onstage. They watched acrobatic, well-trained men, leaping and somersaulting onstage. Dressed in black, there were ten of them.

The crowd roared with instant cheer over the sight of the lords stacking themselves high as a human pyramid with the tenth one raising his arms out like a star. 

Carol and Therese clapped along with the rest of the audience. It wasn’t long soon after that when it was time to go home.


	11. XI

At her work desk in front of her typewriter, Therese could barely concentrate on a news article and kept tugging her fashionable, mesh green scarf over the dark brown hickey on the side of neck. That was Carol’s own way of “marking her territory” or simply loving her. Therese had moaned out a soft cry and squeezed her eyes shut tighter. Carol felt so good, so right. She knew how to work her tongue and mouth. She had made Therese cum all over her hand between her thighs in the car this morning.

Three hours later, Therese couldn’t stop fiddling around with the scarf’s fabric and felt paranoid with fear of those having the chance to witness the muddy, smeared bruise. 

A faint, whining drone sound of a pipe was being blown out by some individual. Several more of the blaring, bleeping windpipe instruments grew louder and more discreet. The music was coming right outside through the panel sealed windows. 

Therese heard chairs being scraped back and sheets of paper rustle around as some of the reporters and editors were getting up from their desks to see the commotion that was going on Main Street. 

“Hey neat,” spoke one of the men, staring right through one of the windows with one of secretaries pressing up against him. 

“What’s this all about?” asked a new voice.

“Looks like some kind of parade!” answered another. 

Therese rose up from her chair to move and go see for herself. One of the editors politely stepped aside to make room for view. Therese leaned forward and stared out the window.

Marching along the wide, traffic blocked streets, were groups of three men in four rows of piping pipers. 11 in total. They wore matching pom knitted hats and plaid kilts. They were in mid-day practice serenading a Scottish song for the winter parade. 

_Eleven pipers piping,_ Therese thought, touching her covered neck. _Hopefully Carol can see them from her shop_.


	12. XII

The parade had ran yesterday and kept running today with Carol and Therese both joining the mobs of people filling up the snowy streets of New York. Floats were being driven through with balloons shaped as different types of characters: Mickey Mouse. Felix the Cat. Popeye. Woody Woodpecker. Children of all ages were dragging their parents along; jumping and waving to the smiling costumed elves and make-up worn reindeer. 

Police had been escorted to block and prevent from anyone running into the streets. They were hand signaling for some to step back in place or keep moving along.

Therese caught on with the marching band’s performance and Carol pointed out the twelve drummers whacking their sticks into the pads of their drum kits. Their uniform attire had royal blue jackets with gold brass buttons and bright red tassels. All of them were male, and wore the same stony, firm expression underneath the bills of their band helmets.

“Do you see Rindy?” Therese asked Carol now, showing her a few feet away from them at the young girl wearing a red beret and brown wool jacket sitting on the shoulders of Harge, who was smiling, facing the parade, accompanied with both of his parents. 

Carol spotted the Airds immediately. She smiled at the sight of her daughter, holding up a pinwheel. She noticed Harge looking clean-shaven and formal. His parents were beside him; their arms wrapped around each other like any regular, perfect married couple— _long-lasting, go figure,_ Carol thought, bemused.

“Should we say hello?” Therese asked, unsure. Carol’s next response surprised her the most.

“And then what? Spoil everyone’s day?” The mother snorted and shook her head. “No. I wouldn’t want that for Rindy. Let her enjoy spending time with her father.”

Therese nodded and kept staring at the man who almost runined their lives. In the distance, Harge Aird seemed like such a good, hardworking guy. A guy who spent the whole day preparing to take both his parents and daughter out for a holiday parade. 

The past in the past. 

Let bygones be bygones.

But still.

No matter how much love and and effort Harge would put in for his family, Therese Belivet still couldn’t trust him.

Not entirely, anyway.


End file.
